D'Arcy Philip Gray

Percussion

BMus, MMus (McGill)
Professional Studies (Juilliard)

Email: DArcy.Gray@Dal.Ca
Phone: 494-5122

Biography:

""Nattering Drama and Winking Humour" - the LA Times "Just the sound of the orange being swallowed, made my saliva drip slowly down the side of my mouth." - the Live Music Report (Toronto)

Canadian percussionist D'Arcy Philip Gray exploits his versatility to find himself in a great variety of performing situations.

As a soloist, he has performed from Columbus, Georgia (USA) to Thunder Bay, Ontario;  Montreal, Québec to Belo Horizonte (Brazil); Banff, Alberta to Tilburg (The Netherlands).  His concerto appearances
include:  Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Atlantic Symphonia, the National Youth Band of Canada, and others.  In the summer of 2008, he recorded a CD of John Cage's solo percussion music for Mode Records (New York).

As a chamber musician, he has performed extensively with Motion Ensemble, Ensemble KORE, les Moineaux d'Entendre, la Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, and pianist Brigitte Poulin.  In addition, there have been numerous projects with the Quatuor Bozzini, Blue Engine String Quartet, Transmission, Sixtrum, Bradyworks, and others.

As an electronic musician, Gray worked extensively with Merce Cunningham and David Tudor in the early 1990s.  This work led to further projects with Composers Inside Electronics and a short residency at the studios of STEIM in Amsterdam in 2004.

In the past ten years, Gray has premiered well over 100 new works, mostly solo or chamber music by Canadian composers.  In addition, he has been very active as an improviser, working extensively with Suddenly Listen and Upstream.  He has also given dozens of clinics on three continents on a variety of subjects.

Gray has taught percussion and music technology courses at McGill University, been a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York, given recitals in Canada, the United States, Europe, and South America, performed with numerous orchestras (including the Montreal Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada).  He has presented at the conferences of the Percussive Arts Society (PASIC), the Audio Engineering Society, and the "Creative and Scientific Legacies of Iannis Xenakis" at Guelph University.  He has written a number of articles for Musicworks Magazine as well as for Halana and the Leonardo Music Journal.

As of summer 2008, Gray has made Halifax, Nova Scotia his new home after 23 years in Montreal.  He has been appointed Percussion Instructor at Dalhousie University.

Gray is a graduate of the Juilliard School and McGill University.  He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Getty Research Institute for the Arts and Humanities.

D'Arcy Philip Gray is a clinician for Yamaha Canada and Sabian.  In his spare time he is a dedicated member of the Canadian Ski Patrol, an avid sailor, and a certified SCUBA diver.